Sunday, January 17, 2010

I finished another reading journal -- that's my second one since 1993. This one lasted 10 years, from Jan. 1, 1999 to December 31, 2009. Wait...that's almost 11 years, right? My math skills are shaky, but however you slice it -- it was a damn good long run. This journal might have lasted longer if I hadn't moved to Korea. Once I moved here, my reading rate as well as my book greed skyrocketed and before I knew it, the pages were getting sparse.

My reading journal and I have been back and forth across the ocean several times, and to many locations in the United States. I've recorded what I've read from front to back, and from back to front, I've added feverishly to my wishlist. In 2003, I started breaking my reading down month-by-month. In 2007, I began keeping extended stats. It's all there, between the (quite attractive and durable) covers. It's still beautiful, isn't it? I still remember the day I bought it -- December 11, 1998. That was my 37th birthday and I had been let loose in a Barnes & Noble in Kansas City with 2 or 3 gift cards.

Even though I've started a new reading journal, I'm having trouble letting this one go. I carry it everywhere. I put it on my shelf; I take it down again and turn the pages, alternately smiling and rolling my eyes at my reading patterns over the years. Was there really ever a time that Atlas Shrugged was on my wishlist?

.

I don't remember feeling so attached to the 1993-1998 journal -- you'd think that would be the one I'd be all sentimental about.

I always used the back of my "every day" journals for keeping track of my reading. When we moved in December, I packed all my journals, but took a few minutes to review my reading lists. :) What fun to see what I was reading when my daughters were born in 1974 and 1976!

When reading is such a big part of your life and books such good friends, I can well understand your attachment to your journal!

I love keeping my book journals. I also keep a spreadsheet for quick sorting, but the written journals are the best. I occasionally flip through them as well. Wish I had done this my whole life, but mine only go back to 1993. My current one was started in 2006.

I have never had a reading journal myself but I imagine I would be just attached to it as you are after ten years of carrying it around. It's a significant chunk of your life recorded in there and I think it's a grand idea to have one as well :)

I really like your reading journal idea! I have always just kept an on-going list of what I have read on my computer (since 2000). Between blogging about the books, keeping track of them on GoodReads, and on my computer, I don't think I have any more discipline in me to keep a journal also! You rock!